The Evening Wrap: GDP grew 8.7% in 2021-22, lower than official estimates

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 8.7% in 2021-22, a tad lower than the 8.9% officially estimated earlier, with growth slipping to 4.1% in the last quarter from 5.4% in the third quarter, as per provisional national income estimates released on May 31, 2022. Output from India’s eight core sectors grew at 8.4% in April 2022, the fastest pace in six months, with crude oil and steel the only sectors to record a marginal decline in production compared to April 2021. The Gross Value-Added (GVA) in the economy is estimated to have grown 8.1% in 2021-22, slightly lower than the 8.3% projected by the National Statistical Office (NSO) earlier. India’s GDP had shrunk 6.6% in 2020-21, while the GVA had fallen 4.8% that year amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. GVA from the Agriculture and Financial, Real Estate & Professional Services sectors, the only two sectors that clocked GVA growth in 2020-21, grew by 3% and 4.2% in 2021-22, compared to 3.3% and 2.2% in the previous year, respectively. Five major segments of economic activity recorded GVA growth of about 10% or more in the year gone by, compared to sharp contractions in 2020-21, led by Public Administration, Defence & Other Services, whose GVA rose 12.6% from 5.5% a year ago. GVA from Mining and Quarrying as well as Construction, which had contracted 8.6% and 7.3% in 2020-21, bounced back to clock 11.5% growth in 2021-22. GVA from Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication & Services related to Broadcasting, grew 11.1% from a steep 20.2% fall in 2020-21, while Manufacturing GVA rose 9.9% from a 0.6% drop in the previous year. The contact-intensive segment of Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication & services related to Broadcasting is now the only sector to continue to languish below pre-pandemic levels, ending 2021-22 still 11.3% off 2019-20 GVA levels. Electricity, Gas, Water Supply & Other Utility Services’ GVA grew 7.5% from a 3.6% fall in 2020-21. Overall GVA growth slowed to 3.9% in the January to March 2022 quarter, from 4.7% in the previous quarter. Worryingly, Manufacturing sector output shrank 0.2% compared to the same quarter of 2021 – the first contraction in factories’ output since the massive 31.5% fall in the first quarter of 2020-21 amid strict national lockdowns. Hindu teacher shot dead at Kulgam school as Kashmir sees 7th targeted killing this month A Hindu teacher from Jammu’s Samba district, posted in Kashmir Valley’s Kulgam, was shot dead just outside the school by militants on Tuesday morning. Target killings have left seven civilians dead this month in the Valley. Two local Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants were shot dead in an anti-militancy operation in Pulwama, taking their death toll to around 27 this month. Officials said militants fired from close range at Rajni Bala, 36, around 10 a.m. The staff and students of the Government High School, Gopalpora in Kulgam were about to finish the morning assembly when militants intercepted Bala outside the school, which is located around eight km away from the Kulgam town at a secluded place with orchards around. “The gunmen shot Ms. Balal in her head,” the officials stated. The police said Bala was shifted to a hospital in critical condition but died of her injuries. She was recruited under the Schedule Caste (SC) quota five years ago and was posted in Kashmir. In October last, a teacher from Jammu, also recruited under the SC category, was shot dead inside a school in Srinagar’s Eidgah locality. “The government should do something about targeted killings. We want justice in our case. My sister-in-law was here (Samba) two months ago. She never complained of any threat, though she did talk about lurking fear of late,” a relative of Bala said in Samba. Earlier this month, militants killed six civilians, including a Kashmiri Pandit employee, a woman artist, a wine shop employee and three policemen, in six separate targeted attacks in the Valley. The killing of policeman Saifullah Qadri outside his house on May 24 in Srinagar’s Soura saw the security forces stepping up operations against militants. Sixteen militants have been killed since then in the Valley. The police claimed that among the slain militants included those behind four target killings, including the cases of Kashmiri Pandit employee Rahul Bhat, artist Amreen Bhat and two policemen. Delhi court sends Satyendar Jain to ED custody till June 9 in money-laundering case Delhi’s Health Minister Satyendar Jain was on May 31 sent to Enforcement Directorate’s custody till June 9 in a money laundering case by a court here which noted that his interrogation was required to unearth the alleged larger conspiracy. The ED had on May 30 arrested the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Special Judge Geetanjli Goel issued the remand order after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, sought Jain’s custodial interrogation for 14 days. He said there was a chequered layer of money and the agency was trying to find out if the accused was laundering somebody else’s money and whether there were other potential beneficiaries. “The money hasn’t stopped at ₹4.81 crore. It is beyond. Some facts we don’t have, but the accused is aware,” the SG said, adding that the likelihood of tampering with evidence could not be ruled out till the agency ascertained the real trail. So far, Jain has been evasive in his replies to the agency, he alleged. AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on May 31 broke his silence on the arrest of his Minister Satyendar Jain by the ED, saying the case is “completely fake and politically motivated”. Kejrwal asserted that his government and the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) are “hardcore honest”. “I have studied the case against Jain. It is completely fake and motivated by political reasons and he has been deliberately framed. We have faith in the judiciary. Jain will come out clean and the fake case will not sustain,” the Chief Minister told reporters during an inspection of a road development programme of his government. “They will say anything. If there were even 1% substance in it, I would have taken action,” Kejriwal said when asked about the opposition Congress and BJP demand to remove Jain. Delhi units of the BJP and the Congress have welcomed Jain’s arrest in the case. The BJP has demanded that Kejriwal should remove Jain from his Cabinet. Kejriwal said the AAP has taken notice of complaints of corruption and removed ministers in the past without waiting for any agency to act first. However, many actions by the agencies were “politically motivated”. “You saw that in Punjab, there was an audio of a minister, nobody knew about it, neither any agency nor opposition parties knew it, we could have suppressed it, but we ourself took action and got him arrested. Five years ago, recording of one of my ministers came to me. I removed him from the Ministry [department] and handed him over to the CBI,” Kejriwal said. Kejriwal said Jain was following the path of truth. “God is with us,” he said, and hoped the Minister would walk out free and the judiciary will do justice to him. ‘Extras’ make up for last minute suspense in Rajya Sabha polls The disquiet within the Congress over fielding "outsiders" has given a boost to the BJP to field additional candidates beyond their legislative strength in the coming Rajya Sabha polls for 57 seats across 15 States. The BJP has fielded additional candidates to the ones they can ensure wins, Dhananjay Mahadik in Maharashtra and Lahar Singh in Karnataka, while backing independent candidates, media barons Subhash Chandra in Rajasthan and Kartikeya Sharma in Haryana. In the latter two cases at least, the going will get difficult for the Congress. The most interesting battle is in Karnataka where both parties are trying to corner the Janata Dal (S) for the fourth seat. In Rajasthan, where the Congress has fielded Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari, electing the third candidate will now be a tricky affair as media baron, Subhash Chandra, with the backing of the BJP, has queered the pitch. Mr. Tiwari needs the vote of every independent MLA that is backing the Ashok Gehlot government. But one of them, Sanyam Lodha, a former Congressman who won the 2018 Assembly elections as an independent, asked the Congress to “explain” why it didn’t field anyone from Rajasthan. On Tuesday, Mr. Gehlot sounded confident of winning all the three seats but accused the BJP of trying to indulging in horse-trading. As of now, Congress has 108 MLAs, BJP 71, Independents 13, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) three, the CPI(M) and the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) two each and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) 1. The number of first preference votes required for winning is 41. The Congress, in its current position, can easily get two of its three candidates elected, and are counting on the support of 11 independents to get their third candidate elected. Mr. Chandra, with the BJP's support, already has the 30 extra votes of the BJP and the support of the three RLP MLAs, and needs to get eight votes together to win. The aim, therefore, is to get many independents and the two BTP MLAs on one side. Centre releases ₹86,912 crore GST dues to States The Centre on Tuesday released the entire amount of Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation payable to States up to May 31, 2022 by releasing an amount of ₹86,912 crore, dipping into its own coffers beyond the ₹25,000 crore balance in the GST Compensation Fund. The Finance Ministry said this is being done to assist the States in managing their resources and ensuring that their programmes, especially the expenditure on capital, is carried out successfully during the financial year. Now, the States are only owed compensation under the GST regime for one month — June 2022, the Ministry noted. States had been guaranteed a certain level of revenue for the first five years of the GST regime that was launched in 2017. “This decision has been taken despite the fact that only about ₹25,000 crore is available in the GST Compensation Fund. The balance is being released by the Centre from its own resources pending collection of Cess,” the Ministry said in a statement. In April, the Ministry had pegged outstanding GST compensation dues to States for 2021-22 at ₹78,704 crore, equivalent to four months of such accruals. So dues had been remitted to States for the eight-month period of April 2021 till November 2021, but had been pending since December 2021. Citing an inadequate balance in the GST Compensation Cess account, the Ministry had said the pending amount will be released “as and when amount from cess accrues in the compensation fund”. The Compensation Cess is levied over and above the peak 28% GST rate on luxury or ‘sin’ goods, including cars. “....The States’ protected revenue has been growing at 14% compounded growth whereas the Cess collection did not increase in the same proportion, [and] COVID-19 further increased the gap between protected revenue and the actual revenue receipt including reduction in cess collection,” the Ministry said. To meet the resource gap of the States due to shortfalls in compensation cess accruals, the Centre had borrowed and released ₹1.1 lakh crore in 2020-21 and ₹1.59 lakh crore in 2021-22 as back-to-back loans for States to meet part of the shortfalls. In Brief Monsoon rains from June to September are likely to be more than that anticipated by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in April, with the agency on Tuesday upping its estimate from 99% to 103% of the Long Period Average (LPA). The monsoon rains over the four broad regions — central India, southern peninsula, northeast India and northwest India — for which the IMD provides a forecast, are also likely to be plentiful. Central India and the southern Peninsula are expected to get 106% of their historical average. Rainfall is likely to be ‘normal’ over northeast India and northwest India. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 31 MAY 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( GDP grew 8.7% in 2021-22, lower than official estimates [India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 8.7% in 2021-22]( a tad lower than the 8.9% officially estimated earlier, with growth slipping to 4.1% in the last quarter from 5.4% in the third quarter, as per provisional national income estimates released on May 31, 2022. Output from India’s eight core sectors grew at 8.4% in April 2022, the fastest pace in six months, with crude oil and steel the only sectors to record a marginal decline in production compared to April 2021. [Labourers rest on a hot day in Lucknow on May 31, 2022. India’s economic growth, hit by pandemic curbs and price increases, slowed to 4.1% in the January-March quarter, according to figures released on May 31, 2022 by the government.] The Gross Value-Added (GVA) in the economy is estimated to have grown 8.1% in 2021-22, slightly lower than the 8.3% projected by the National Statistical Office (NSO) earlier. India’s GDP had shrunk 6.6% in 2020-21, while the GVA had fallen 4.8% that year amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. GVA from the Agriculture and Financial, Real Estate & Professional Services sectors, the only two sectors that clocked GVA growth in 2020-21, grew by 3% and 4.2% in 2021-22, compared to 3.3% and 2.2% in the previous year, respectively. Five major segments of economic activity recorded GVA growth of about 10% or more in the year gone by, compared to sharp contractions in 2020-21, led by Public Administration, Defence & Other Services, whose GVA rose 12.6% from 5.5% a year ago. GVA from Mining and Quarrying as well as Construction, which had contracted 8.6% and 7.3% in 2020-21, bounced back to clock 11.5% growth in 2021-22. GVA from Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication & Services related to Broadcasting, grew 11.1% from a steep 20.2% fall in 2020-21, while Manufacturing GVA rose 9.9% from a 0.6% drop in the previous year. The contact-intensive segment of Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication & services related to Broadcasting is now the only sector to continue to languish below pre-pandemic levels, ending 2021-22 still 11.3% off 2019-20 GVA levels. Electricity, Gas, Water Supply & Other Utility Services’ GVA grew 7.5% from a 3.6% fall in 2020-21. Overall GVA growth slowed to 3.9% in the January to March 2022 quarter, from 4.7% in the previous quarter. Worryingly, Manufacturing sector output shrank 0.2% compared to the same quarter of 2021 – the first contraction in factories’ output since the massive 31.5% fall in the first quarter of 2020-21 amid strict national lockdowns. Hindu teacher shot dead at Kulgam school as Kashmir sees 7th targeted killing this month A [Hindu teacher from Jammu’s Samba district, posted in Kashmir Valley’s Kulgam, was shot dead]( just outside the school by militants on Tuesday morning. Target killings have left seven civilians dead this month in the Valley. Two local Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants were shot dead in an anti-militancy operation in Pulwama, taking their death toll to around 27 this month. [Relatives and the daughter of teacher Rajni Bala mourn at their residence in Samba on May 31, 2022. Bala was shot dead just outside the school by militants on May 31, 2022. ] Officials said militants fired from close range at Rajni Bala, 36, around 10 a.m. The staff and students of the Government High School, Gopalpora in Kulgam were about to finish the morning assembly when militants intercepted Bala outside the school, which is located around eight km away from the Kulgam town at a secluded place with orchards around. “The gunmen shot Ms. Balal in her head,” the officials stated. The police said Bala was shifted to a hospital in critical condition but died of her injuries. She was recruited under the Schedule Caste (SC) quota five years ago and was posted in Kashmir. In October last, a teacher from Jammu, also recruited under the SC category, was shot dead inside a school in Srinagar’s Eidgah locality. “The government should do something about targeted killings. We want justice in our case. My sister-in-law was here (Samba) two months ago. She never complained of any threat, though she did talk about lurking fear of late,” a relative of Bala said in Samba. Earlier this month, militants killed six civilians, including a Kashmiri Pandit employee, a woman artist, a wine shop employee and three policemen, in six separate targeted attacks in the Valley. The killing of policeman Saifullah Qadri outside his house on May 24 in Srinagar’s Soura saw the security forces stepping up operations against militants. Sixteen militants have been killed since then in the Valley. The police claimed that among the slain militants included those behind four target killings, including the cases of Kashmiri Pandit employee Rahul Bhat, artist Amreen Bhat and two policemen. Delhi court sends Satyendar Jain to ED custody till June 9 in money-laundering case Delhi’s Health Minister [Satyendar Jain was on May 31 sent to Enforcement Directorate’s custody]( till June 9 in a money laundering case by a court here which noted that his interrogation was required to unearth the alleged larger conspiracy. The ED had on May 30 arrested the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Special Judge Geetanjli Goel issued the remand order after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, sought Jain’s custodial interrogation for 14 days. He said there was a chequered layer of money and the agency was trying to find out if the accused was laundering somebody else’s money and whether there were other potential beneficiaries. “The money hasn’t stopped at ₹4.81 crore. It is beyond. Some facts we don’t have, but the accused is aware,” the SG said, adding that the likelihood of tampering with evidence could not be ruled out till the agency ascertained the real trail. So far, Jain has been evasive in his replies to the agency, he alleged. AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on May 31 broke his silence on the arrest of his Minister Satyendar Jain by the ED, saying the case is “completely fake and politically motivated”. Kejrwal asserted that his government and the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) are “hardcore honest”. “I have studied the case against Jain. It is completely fake and motivated by political reasons and he has been deliberately framed. We have faith in the judiciary. Jain will come out clean and the fake case will not sustain,” the Chief Minister told reporters during an inspection of a road development programme of his government. “They will say anything. If there were even 1% substance in it, I would have taken action,” Kejriwal said when asked about the opposition Congress and BJP demand to remove Jain. Delhi units of the BJP and the Congress have welcomed Jain’s arrest in the case. The BJP has demanded that Kejriwal should remove Jain from his Cabinet. Kejriwal said the AAP has taken notice of complaints of corruption and removed ministers in the past without waiting for any agency to act first. However, many actions by the agencies were “politically motivated”. “You saw that in Punjab, there was an audio of a minister, nobody knew about it, neither any agency nor opposition parties knew it, we could have suppressed it, but we ourself took action and got him arrested. Five years ago, recording of one of my ministers came to me. I removed him from the Ministry [department] and handed him over to the CBI,” Kejriwal said. Kejriwal said Jain was following the path of truth. “God is with us,” he said, and hoped the Minister would walk out free and the judiciary will do justice to him. ‘Extras’ make up for last minute suspense in Rajya Sabha polls The disquiet within the Congress over fielding "outsiders" has [given a boost to the BJP to field additional candidates beyond their legislative strength]( in the coming Rajya Sabha polls for 57 seats across 15 States. The [BJP has fielded additional candidates]( to the ones they can ensure wins, Dhananjay Mahadik in Maharashtra and Lahar Singh in Karnataka, while backing independent candidates, media barons Subhash Chandra in Rajasthan and Kartikeya Sharma in Haryana. In the latter two cases at least, the going will get difficult for the Congress. The most interesting battle is in Karnataka where both parties are trying to corner the Janata Dal (S) for the fourth seat. In [Rajasthan, where the Congress has fielded Randeep Surjewala]( Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari, electing the third candidate will now be a tricky affair as media baron, Subhash Chandra, with the backing of the BJP, has queered the pitch. Mr. Tiwari needs the vote of every independent MLA that is backing the Ashok Gehlot government. But one of them, Sanyam Lodha, a former Congressman who won the 2018 Assembly elections as an independent, [asked the Congress to “explain”]( why it didn’t field anyone from Rajasthan. On Tuesday, Mr. Gehlot sounded confident of winning all the three seats but [accused the BJP of trying to indulging in horse-trading](. As of now, Congress has 108 MLAs, BJP 71, Independents 13, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) three, the CPI(M) and the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) two each and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) 1. The number of first preference votes required for winning is 41. The Congress, in its current position, can easily get two of its three candidates elected, and are counting on the support of 11 independents to get their third candidate elected. Mr. Chandra, with the BJP's support, already has the 30 extra votes of the BJP and the support of the three RLP MLAs, and needs to get eight votes together to win. The aim, therefore, is to get many independents and the two BTP MLAs on one side. Centre releases ₹86,912 crore GST dues to States The Centre on Tuesday [released the entire amount of Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation payable to States]( up to May 31, 2022 by releasing an amount of ₹86,912 crore, dipping into its own coffers beyond the ₹25,000 crore balance in the GST Compensation Fund. The Finance Ministry said this is being done to assist the States in managing their resources and ensuring that their programmes, especially the expenditure on capital, is carried out successfully during the financial year. Now, the States are only owed compensation under the GST regime for one month — June 2022, the Ministry noted. States had been guaranteed a certain level of revenue for the first five years of the GST regime that was launched in 2017. “This decision has been taken despite the fact that only about ₹25,000 crore is available in the GST Compensation Fund. The balance is being released by the Centre from its own resources pending collection of Cess,” the Ministry said in a statement. In April, the Ministry had pegged outstanding GST compensation dues to States for 2021-22 at ₹78,704 crore, equivalent to four months of such accruals. So dues had been remitted to States for the eight-month period of April 2021 till November 2021, but had been pending since December 2021. Citing an inadequate balance in the GST Compensation Cess account, the Ministry had said the pending amount will be released “as and when amount from cess accrues in the compensation fund”. The Compensation Cess is levied over and above the peak 28% GST rate on luxury or ‘sin’ goods, including cars. “....The States’ protected revenue has been growing at 14% compounded growth whereas the Cess collection did not increase in the same proportion, [and] COVID-19 further increased the gap between protected revenue and the actual revenue receipt including reduction in cess collection,” the Ministry said. To meet the resource gap of the States due to shortfalls in compensation cess accruals, the Centre had borrowed and released ₹1.1 lakh crore in 2020-21 and ₹1.59 lakh crore in 2021-22 as back-to-back loans for States to meet part of the shortfalls. In Brief [Monsoon rains from June to September are likely to be more than that anticipated]( by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in April, with the agency on Tuesday upping its estimate from 99% to 103% of the Long Period Average (LPA). The monsoon rains over the four broad regions — central India, southern peninsula, northeast India and northwest India — for which the IMD provides a forecast, are also likely to be plentiful. Central India and the southern Peninsula are expected to get 106% of their historical average. Rainfall is likely to be ‘normal’ over northeast India and northwest India. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow  Today’s Top Picks [[Black box of crashed Tara Air aircraft recovered by mountain guides] Black box of crashed Tara Air aircraft recovered by mountain guides]( [[India, China agree to hold next round of military talks soon] India, China agree to hold next round of military talks soon]( [[The middle path for India in the new world disorder] The middle path for India in the new world disorder]( [[Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s exit from Rajya Sabha may mean no Muslim face for BJP in Parliament] Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s exit from Rajya Sabha may mean no Muslim face for BJP in Parliament]( Copyright @ 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](